A hoist used in cigarette production is disclosed in detail, for example, in US 2004/0118416 A1. This hoist transfers long wrapping paper, which is continuously supplied, in the longitudinal direction while maintaining the paper by using garniture tape, and simultaneously places the tobacco shreds controlled in its supply amount on the upper surface of the wrapping paper. Both the edge portions of the wrapping paper are curved in the width direction to wrap the tobacco shreds continuously. By so doing, a long rod-like cigarette is continuously produced. In this process, one of the edge portions of the wrapping paper that is continuously supplied to the hoist is applied with seam glue for bonding together the edge portions of the wrapping paper that wraps the tobacco shreds.
The long rod-like cigarette that is continuously produced as described above is cut into pieces having prescribed length at the outlet of the hoist. The cigarettes are then supplied to a filter tip attachment as the next step, and filter tips are coaxially fixed to the ends of the cigarettes.
It has recently been attempted to apply an aroma chemical onto the wrapping paper for the purpose of suppressing a certain odor component in cigarettes without ruining the flavor of the cigarettes. An aroma chemical of this kind is diluted, for example, with CMC (carboxymethyl cellulose) solution. This aroma chemical is generally high in moisture content as compared to the seam glue. Therefore, if the wrapping paper applied with the aroma chemical is supplied to the hoist in the undried state, this easily causes the problems that the wrapping paper winds around guide rollers in the hoist and that the wrapping paper sticks to a guide member to incur jamming of the wrapping paper. For this reason, the wrapping paper applied with the aroma chemical needs to be supplied to the hoist after being completely dried.
There is a tendency to increase the production rate of cigarettes in the hoist more and more, so that it is difficult to secure sufficient time for drying the wrapping paper applied with an aroma chemical. In case that a radiant heat source, such as a halogen lamp (infrared ray lamp) and a rod heater, which is generally used to dry seam glue, is utilized, only the surface is mainly heated, so that the drying is prone to be incomplete. Moreover, the wrapping paper easily gets stained on the surface. In contrast, if a microwave heating device using electromagnetic waves is utilized, scorching caused by electric discharge occurs frequently, and in some cases the wrapping paper is burned. Possible causes of these problems are high moisture content in the aroma chemical, rapid water infiltration attributable of the thinness of the wrapping paper, and small dry load.